Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Jamie, the self-proclaimed "face of the Dodgers," wants the court to order Frank to pay her $320,967 yearly monthly if he restores Jamie to her $2 millon/year post as CEO of the club. Should he not want her to stay in that position, she's seeking a monthly payment of $487,634. And that's just maintenance. She will also seek half the marital assets, but that's a road for a later date.

Regardless of whether or not she's rehired, she wants to enjoy all the benefits and perquisites of being the owner of a MLB team. These include, among many other demands: travel by private jet, only the finest accomodations and restaurants wherever she travels, access to current and former Dodgers, and professional hair and makeup service.

Also listed is 24-hour security and a driver. While the court may indeed allow this request, I can't imagine Frank will let those positions be filled by Jeff Fuller, Jamie's former "Director of Protocol." Why?

Her most explosive allegations are that Frank systematically worked to cut her out of, well, nearly everything. In 2004, she claims, he manipulated her into basically signing away her share of the bulk of the marital assets. Things came to a head when he refused to revoke the agreement divesting her of the property. The situation got toxic, and he eventually cut her off entirely, going as far as to empty her accounts and stop paying her bills. He also, of course, fired her as CEO.

His alleged actions are best summed up by this topic heading in her application:

"Frank begins to rewrite history concerning our ownership of the dodgers and to drive me out of the organization."

So her position going forward is going to be that Frank coldly and calculatedly excised her from the family wealth over a number of years. If her allegations are true, Frank comes out to be quite the jerk here. With what sounds to the proletariat like unlimited wealth, he left her illiquid and jobless. He left our beloved Dodgers faceless.* He rendered her pool-less**. He stole from her what they had spent a lifetime building.

*If Jamie McCourt is the "face of the Dodgers," can Kershaw be the arm? Manny the hair? Billingsley the, you know, hindquarters? I could go on for days, but I sense you're not amused. Thank goodness Visanthe Shiancoe is a Viking footballer, not a Dodger. This could have got out of hand.

**My personal favorite of Jamie's lifestyle demands? Access to the indoor pool at the Charing Cross residence Frank will keep during the divorce. Of course, the $27 million Malibu beach house where she'll slum it through the proceedings has a pool already. But folks, please keep in mind that it is small and "unsuitable for long-distance swimming." Perhaps I've lived away from California for too long, but it seems to me that a beach house would afford all sorts of long-distance swimming opportunities.

So we're running a little long here, but splitting up $1.2 billion empires takes time, people. In a nutshell, they built vast wealth, she says he tricked her into signing her part away, and that ain't right. I'm sure we'll refer back to her preliminary filings over and over again, but this is a good starting point.